Tokyo Olympics Head Makes Sexist Remarks, Quits After Calling Female Celebrity 'Olympig'

Tokyo Olympics Head Sexist Remarks: Hiroshi Sasaki, the former head creative director for the opening and closing ceremonies at this year's Tokyo Olympics Games, has resigned on Thursday.

The movie came in the light of his sexist comment about a well-known female celebrity in Japan. According to reports, he had mentioned in a group chat that Naomi Watanabe, who is a popular comedian, actress, and fashion designer in Japan, could play the role of an "Olympig".

Sasaki,66, had remarked that the 33-year-old plus-size comedian Watanabe could wear pig ears at the opening ceremony. She is known for her body positivity advocacy work. She had earlier spearheaded a body-positive movement called "pochakawaii", which translates to "chubby and cute". In 2014, Watanabe started one of Japan's first brands to offer plus-size clothing.

Tokyo Olympics head makes Sexist Remarks

Sasaki later apologised admitting that it was "a huge insult" and told Tokyo 2020 president Seiko Hashimoto late on Wednesday evening that he was stepping down. "There was a very inappropriate expression in my ideas and remarks," Sasaki said in a statement issued through Games organisers on Thursday. "I sincerely apologise to her and people who have felt discomfort with such contents."

His resignation comes after Yoshiro Mori stepped down from his role as president of the Tokyo 2020 organising committee last month. In February, Mori was forced to resign after passing sexist comments, saying women talk too much in meetings. Eight-three-year-old former prime minister Mori earned a lot of flak when he told members of the Japanese Olympic Committee that “When you increase the number of female executive members, if their speaking time isn’t restricted to a certain extent, they have difficulty finishing, which is annoying.”